Automatic repeat and normalizing switch



Oct. 25, 1932. w. w. LASKER 1,383,985

AUTOMATIC REPEAT AND NORMALIZING SWITCH Filed Oct. 20. 1927 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Wlimker Oct. 25, 1932. w. w. LASKER 1,883,935

KUTUMATIC REPEAT AND NORMALIZING SWITCH Filed Oct. 20. 1927 a Sheets-Sheet 2 IIIE 5.5. a: CR POWER MOTOR GENERATOR BK SP.

SWOTCH CAR. RET. SWH'CH KEYBOARD CONNECTIONS CARRIAGE N RETURN MAGNFF AUTOMA 1c CARRIAGE Oct. 25, 1932. w. w. LASKER 1,883,985

AUTOMATIC REPEAT AND NQRMALIZING SWITCH Filed Oct; 20, 192'! 5 sheets-sheet a Qwowntoz Patented Oct. 25, 1932 UNITED STATES FFICE WILLIAM W. LASKER, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO REMINGTON RAND INO, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE AUTOMATIC REPEAT AND NORMALIZING SWITCH Application filed October 20, 1927. Serial No. 227,487.

This invention relates to an automatic repeat and normalizing switch for card punching or perforating machines and one of the principal objects of the invention is to provide a key whereby any desired number of cards may be punched or perforated according to a single setting of the punching controlling devices.

Another object is to effect a continuous operation of the punch machine for producing any desired number of duplicate cards.

Another object of the invention is to render the keyboard of the perforating machine ineffective during production of the duplicate cards.

Another object of the invention is to render the carriage return and back space mechanisms of the machine ineffective during the punching of the duplicate cards.

Another object of the invention is to provide a device of this description which shall be simple of construction, comparatively cheap of manufacture, and highly efficient for the purpose for which it is designed.

lVith these and other objects in view which will become apparent as the description proceeds, the invention consists in certain novel construction and combination and arrangement of parts, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevation of a machine of the type to which my invention applies, certain parts being broken away for the sake of clearness.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view of the keyboard and the connections therefrom to various parts of the machine, and including a showing of the repeat switch applied thereto.

Fig. 3 is a detail view of a portion of the back space mechanism.

Fig. i is a similar view of a portion of the carriage return mechanism.

Like characters of reference refer to like parts in all views.

This invention relates particularly to a switch mechanism as applied to the connections of a standard machine now widely in use and known on the market as the Powers numerical punch or Powers alphabetical punch or Powers typewriter punch according to whether the punch is controlled from numeral keys only or from numeral keys and an alphabetical keyboard arranged on the punch machine, or from the keys of a typewriter which may be separate from the punch machine proper. This switch when in its normal position connects up various circuits of any of these well-' known machines to effect the punching of cards under the control of the keyboard. When the switch is moved to its other posi tion it disconnects all of the keyboard controls and at the same time effects contact in such a manner as to cause the machine to continuously feed and punch cards without wiping out the set-up, thereby producing any desired number of cards punched in duplicate. When the switch is again thrown back to normal position, the operation of the machine then in progress continues to the conclusion of its cycle and at the end of such operation, the carriage return mechanism being again effective causes the wiping out of the set-up of the machine.

Referring to the drawings in detail, and in particular to Fig. 1, 20 represents the framework of a standard Powers punch, such framework being of suitable construction to support the working mechanism of the ma chine. 21 indicates generally the carriage which is provided with means for setting up punch controlling elements in the machine. These means and elements are not shown in the present application, as they are wellknown in the art and are fully set forth in my Patent No. 1,305,557. The carriage may be drawn towards the right in Fig. 1 by mechanism not shown, such movement being controlled by escapement wheel 23 and escapement pawls 24 and 25 as is well-known in the art. The carriage is returned to normal or home position by means which will presently be more fully set forth.

Back-spacing mechanism is also provided for the carriage, the mechanism of which will be later set forth, whereby the carriage may be moved toward the left in Fig. 1 one space at a time.

In Fig. 2 is shown a diagrammatic layout of the electric wiring of the machine and the parts directly afliected thereby. The keyboard of an alphabetical punch is shown as including twenty-siX letter-keys 26, twelve numeral keys 27 a space bar 28, a ship or jump key 29, a back-space key 30, a carriage return key 31, and a trip or operating key 32. Such keys are old and well-known, and their purpose is obvious. (The reference numerals 26 and 27 have been applied to only a few of the letter and numeral keys, as the inclicia on the keys indicate which they are and repetition of the reference characters would only confuse the drawing.)

Fig. 2 also shows a motor generator at 33 with suitable connections for electric service, and a magnet box 34 containing fourteen magnets 35, and having operatively related thereto a relay 36. The several magnets have been shown with indicia which indicate their correlation with respective ones of the numeral keys and with skip and space keys. Those magnets correlated with numeral keys, as is well-known in the art, operate to set the control mechanism for respective punches in the machine when the respective numeral keys are depressed. Also when any letter key is depressed, one or more of these magnets will be energized to effect the setting of respective punch-control mechanism. There are only twelve of these magnets associated with numeral keys, and it is therefore obvious that when some of the letter keys are depressed they must control a combination of punches in order to differentiate them. This control of the secondary punch is effected in the form of machine here shown, by the relay 36, which when operated always effects the en ergizing of the 12 magnet so that the 12 punch control and the particular punch control associated with the respective letter key will be simultaneously set. Such controls form part of the Powers equipment and are wellknown in the art.

The connecting circuits from the keys to the magnets, relay, generator, and other parts are indicated in Fig. 2 by indicia l to 12, car ret, back space, etc, and are not given other reference characters which might prove confusing. Leads for the various circuits are shown broken A as indicating connections which may run to a typewriter distant from the punching machine.

A trip magnet is shown at 37 in Fig. 2, and is shown in circuit with the trip key 32.

This magnet when energized effects operation of the punch machine to punch a card, feed the punched card into a card-receiving receptacle, feed a fresh card to position to be punched, efiect the return of the carriage to normal position, and wiping out of the set-up.

The carriage return mechanism consists essentially of a block 38 slidable transversely of the machine and having a lug 39 adapted to engage and return the carriage to the left to home position, such position being determined by a block 40, mounted on a bar 41 having a limited sliding movement. The block 38 is normally held toward the right of the machine by a tape 42 operated from a spring drum 43. The return of the carriage to the left in Fig. 1 is effected by a tape 44 also attached to block 38 and which is operated by a magnet 45 to draw the block 38 to the left, the block 38 picking up the carriage and returning the latter to home position. The magnet 45 is in the form of a drum mounted on a constantly running shaft 46, and when energized is clutched to said shaft so as to turn with it and draw on tape 44.

The means for energizing and de-energizing magnet 45 is constructed as follows: A bell-crank lever 47 (Figs. 1, 2, and 4) has one end extending through a slot in the bottom of bar 41 which carries block 40, as shown in Fig. 1. The other arm of lever 47 carries a double contact element 48 (Fig. 2) connected to the common line and adapted to cont-act with a contact 49 so as to close the keyboard common line, or to contact a contact 50 so as to close the circuit through the carriage return magnet 45. Normally the lever 47 is held as shown in Fig. 4 by a stop lever 51, in which case the bar 41 is held to the left in Fig. 1 and contacts 48 and 49 are in engagement as shown in Fig. 2, rendering the keyboard operative. When the carriage-return key 31 is depressed, the circuit is closed through a carriage return control or solenoid 52 (Figs. 2 and 4), and the armature 53 of solenoid 52 is drawn down which rocks lever 51 releasing the lever 47 which is moved by bar 41 to the right in Fig. 1. Bar 41 is itself moved by a spring 54. The movement of lever 47 throws contact 48 into engagement with contact 50 thereby opening the common line to the keyboard so as to prevent effective operation of the keys during carriage return, and closing the circuit through the carriage return magnet 45. The block 38 will now be drawn leftward in Fig. 1 until the carriage has returned to and contacts block 40. As the carriage moves farther to the left, block 40 and bar 41 are moved with it toward the left thereby moving lever 47 back to its original position with the contacts 48 and 49 in engagement, and the circuit through the carriage return magnet broken; and lever 47 is locked by stop-lever 51. During the return of the carriage a lever 55, Fig. 1, has been rocked by means, not shown, to lower a releasing roller 56 into the path of releasing latches 57 so as to wipe out the set-up in the machine.

The back-space mechanism consists essentially of bar 58 (Fig. 1) having inclined slots 59 embracing stationary supporting pins 60. The lower edge of bar 58 is provided with teeth 61 so that when bar 58 is drawn to the left he teeth 61 are first lowered into engage- Ill ment with a pawl 62 on the carriage and then the pawl 62 and carriage are drawn to the left suiiiciently to effect asingle step of backspace movement of the carriage. At the same time teeth 61 depress a pawl 63 to efiect lowering of roller 56 so that as the carriage moves to the left, the set-up is wiped out in that column to which the carriage is returned.

Bar 58 is moved to the left by a link 6 and bell-crank 65, the latter being flexibly connected to a lever 66 so as normally to move therewith. Levers 65 and 66 are pivoted at 67, and 66 is rocked down by a tape 68, connected at its lower end to a cylindrical magnet 69 loosely mounted on the constantly runing shaft 46. When this magnet 69 is energized it is clutched to shaft l6 and rotated thereby to operate tape 68 and the back-space mechanism.

The energizing of magnet 69 is accomplished by depressing the back-space key 30 which closes the circuit through the back space solenoid 70, Figs. 2 and 3. The armature 71 of solenoid is thereby drawn down so as to rock a stop lever 72 to release a bellcrank lever 73, Fig. 3. Lever 73 is rocked counter-clockwise in Fig. 3 by a spring 74: thereby raising a contact 75 into engagement with a co-operating contact 76 thereby closing the circuit thru the back-space magnet 69 and efiecting back-spacing of the carriage. As lever 66, Fig. 1, moves down during back spacing, its heel 77 ,Fig. 1 contacts the horizontal arm of lever 73, Fig. 3, and rocks lever 73 clockwise thereby breaking the contact between members 7 5 and 76 so that magnet 69 is tie-energized and the back-space devices return to normal under influence of their various springs, lever 73 being locked in. inoperative condition by stop-lever 72 again engaging the bent over lower end of said lever.

As hereinbefore stated, the trip magnet 37 is energized upon depression of the trip key 32 which closes the circuit through said magnet. By referring to Fig.1,it will be seen that the magnet 37 is a solenoid which when energized, draws a core 89 to the left thereby rocking a lever 81 against the tension of its return spring 82 whereby finger 83 is drawn out of the path of a nos-e 84; on one element of a clutch indicated generally at 85, whereupon said clutch operates to clutch the constantly running shaft section 46 to an intermittent shaft section 85, thereby effecting operation of the machine. If the key 32 is released before the cycle is completed, the finger 83 is returned to intercept the nose 84: whereby the shafts 46 and 83 are unclutched.

It may be stated at this point that the specific details of the carriage return herein shown are fully set forth in my pending application Serial No. 187,19l, filed April 28, 1927, now Patent No. 1,68%,5l6, dated Sept. 18, 1928; the specific details of the back space device are set forth in my pending application Serial N 0. 186,718 filed April 26, 1927, now Patent No. 1,798,610, dated March 31, 1931; and the specific details of the clutch are set forth in my pending application Ser. No. 183,388, filed April 13, 1927, now Patent 1,810,317, dated June 16, 1931.

Mounted on the shaft 85 as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 is a cylinder 86 of insulating material which has set into it a contact strip 87. Normally the shaft 85 stands with strip 87 just beyond the contacts 88 and 89. When the shaft 85 is rotated, the contacts 88 and 89 ride on the insulation 86 and the circuit is open until near the end of the cycle of operation when strip 87 bridges the gap between contacts 88 and 89 and the circuit is completed to effectoperation of the carriage return mechanism which returns the carriage and wipes out the set-up leaving the machine ready for further manipulation for a succeeding card.

The switch which controls the duplicating feature of the present invention is shown diagrammatically in Fig. 2, and consists essentially of three pairs of contact points and a slidable triple contactor 90. The contact points are indicated as follows: 91 and 92 connected by leads with the trip arranged to be bridged by a contact element 93 when the contactor is in normal position; 94 and 95 connected in the common and arranged to be bridged by a contact element 96 when the contactor 90 is in normal position; and 97 and 98 connected respectively to the trip and common lines and arranged to be bridged by a contact element 99 when the contactor 90 is moved to repeating position,- i. e. to the right in Fig. 2. From t iis arrangement, it will readily be seen that when contactor 90 is in normal position the circuits of the keyboard of the machine including the letter and numeral keys, space key, trip key, back-space key, and carriage-return key, will be live and operable by those keys; and, also,

that when the contactor is moved to the right all of these keys are made dead, and the circuit t-hru the trip magnet is completed so that the finger 83 will be withdrawn and held out of the path of nose 84 so that the clutch will remain active and cards will be punched until the switch is thrown back to normal. Also while the switch is to the right, the carriagereturn will be dead and consequently the setup ill remain until the switch is returned to the left and near the completion of the operation during which the switch is returned to normal, the contacts 88 and 89 will be bridged by the strip 87 and the carriagereturn circuit being again live, the carriage will be returned and the set-up wiped out. Furthermore, the return of the switch to normal causes solenoid 37 to de-energize and as the machine completes its then present cycle of operation, the clutch will be thrown out.

In actual operation, the operator sets up the desired data, then throws the switch to the right and counts the cards as ejected by the machine. WV hen the desired number of cards have been punched, the switch is thrown to the left or normal, and as the then current operation is completed, the several mechanisms are again normal and the machine ready for a new setting. During the time the switch is to the right, the entire keyboard is dead, so that accidental manipulation of any of the keys will not have any effect and consequently neither mistakes nor damage can result. If desired, an automatic card counter could he used in connection with the device, but such a counter is not shown herein.

While I have described what I consider to be the preferred embodiment of my invention, it is obvious that minor changes might be made without departing from the spirit of my invention, and I, therefore, do not limit myself to the specific embodiment herein shown and described, nor to anything less than the whole of my invention as hereinafter claimed.

I claim:

1. In a card perforating machine, the combination with a perforator and a carriage and carriage-return mechanism therefor, of means for setting said perforator into operation for a continuous run of a plurality of cycles and concomitantly rendering said carriage-return mechanism inoperable.

2. In a card perforating machine, the combination with a perforator and a keyboard and mechanism operable therefrom, of means for setting said perforator into operation for a continuous run of a plurality of cycles and concomitantly rendering said keyboard ineffective with relation to said mechanism.

3. In a card perforating machine, the combination with a perforator, set-up means including a movable carriage, and carriagereturn mechanism operatively related to said carriage and including an electric circuit the closing of which initiates the actuation of the carriage return, of means normally operative to effect a closing of said circuit at each operation of said perforator, and means whereby said circuit may be retained in open condition during a plurality of operations of said machine. 7

4. In a card perforating machine, the combination with a perforator and set-up means including a movable carriage, of carriagereturn mechanism operatively related to said carriage and including an electric circuit the closing of which initiates the actuation of the carriage return, a rotary element automatically operable to effect a closing of said circuit at each operation of said perforator, and means for rendering said rotary element ineffective.

5. In a card perforating machine, the combination with perforating mechanism, keys for effecting a set-up in said mechanism, of means for wiping out or erasing such set-up, a device normally calling such means into operation at each operation of said mechanism, and means for suspending the effectiveness of said device during a plurality of perforating operations, the last said means also being provided with means for rendering said keys ineffective duringsaid plurality of operations.

6. In a card perforating machine, the combination with the keyboard and a perforator mechanism operable therefrom, of means for setting said perforator mechanism into operation for a continuous run of a plurality of punching operations and concomitantly rendering said keyboard ineffective with relation to said mechanism and said means also being operable to terminate the punching operations and to render said keyboard again effective with relation to said mechanism.

7. In a machine of the class described, the combination of an intermittent actuating mechanism, data keys, punch set-up devices, electric circuits controllable by said data keys for effecting operation of said set-up devices, and a device for setting said intermittent mechanism'in operation to effect repetitive punching of the same data and concomitantly rendering said circuits ineffective.

8. In a machine of the class described, the combination of an intermittent actuating mechanism, data keys, punch set-up devices, electric circuits controllable by said data keys for effecting operation of said set-up devices,

means for setting said intermittent mechanism in operation for a single operation, and means for setting said mechanism in operation for a. plurality of operations to effect repetitive punching of the same data and concomitantly rendering said circuits ineffective.

9. In a machine of the class described, the combination of an intermittent actuating mechanism, data keys, punch set-up devices,

electric circuits controllable by said data keys for effecting operation of said setting up devices, a. carriage, a carriage-return key, a circuit controllable by said carriage-return key for controlling said carriage, and a device for setting the intermittent mechanism in operation to effect repetitive punching of the same data and concomitantly rendering all of said circuits ineffective.

10. In a machine of the class described, the

combination of an intermittent actuating mechanism, data keys, punch set-up devices, electric circuits controllable by said data keys for effecting operation of said setting up no N same data and concomitantly rendering all of said circuits ineflective.

11. In a card perforating machine, the combination of a perforator and the carriage and carriage-return mechanism thereof, and controlling means having two positions in one of which said carriage return mechanism is operable'and which means when moved to its other position sets said perforator into operation for a continuous run of a succession of cycles and concomitantly renders said carriage return mechanism inoperable, the con struction and arrangement being such that when said means returns to its first mentioned position said carriage return mechanism is rendered operable at the proper time during the last cycle of such succession of cycles.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

WILLIAM W. LASKER. 

